We live in an empirical age...

...as well as a material one, of course.

“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” -- Albert Einstein


After the haze and fog of recent days subsided, a crystal clear day greeted us in the Bay Area today. That didn't help traffic, which still sucked. But it did contribute to the kind of mood where you feel hypersensitive to details. Here, much like in Perth, Seattle, and other coastal cities, the light is special, so when the weather is right, almost every detail reveals itself.


“The only real valuable thing is intuition.” -- Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein had a way of expressing things succinctly, and in a way that encourages a person like me. One of my favorite quotations from him is:

“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

Thus, with all the numbers swirling around us these days (and despite my love of numerical patterns), tonight my goal is to honor the normative, non-numerical, instinctive, intuitive sides of life.

So, here is what came drifting down my street tonight. As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite new magazines is Found and this item is very much in that spirit.



(If you click on this or any of my photos, you will see a larger version.)

The problem with this one is, intuitively, that it does feel real to me, but contrived. I'd have to say this is most likely a writing exercise, a joke, or some lines from a play.

Just a guess, with no criticism intended to its author in case it is actually a real story.

Truth is, naturally, stranger than fiction, and there's a cliché I can live with.

***

Lately, I've had to endure some medical tests and a period of uncertainty over some strange symptoms. Though the results of most of the tests won't be known for a while, the most likely explanations now seem to be of the less frightening type, which is potentially some good news. Nevertheless, the pain persists. So, my night's plans had to be cancelled, and I am in bed, appropriately medicated, as darkness covers this area, and whatever clarity of detail was available earlier, now is only the stuff of imagination.

Tonight, I am imagining a world where we really took care of one another. Sort of like John Lennon's signature song. All of the attempts to "win," acquire things, "get ahead," compete, be "number one," or become rich, would have to fade away to where they belong, into the dustbin of meaninglessness, in my imaginary world.

“Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.”-- Albert Einstein

Tonight, I once again honor the people who devote their lives to those who need their help, especially the volunteers all along the forgotten Gulf Coast. Our society may overlook you, but I never will. You all deserve Care packages.

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